Neptune blesses our waters with an amazing variety of seafood, but the god has withheld one of my favorites.

Supposedly there are no octopus anywhere within at least hundreds of miles of our own fishers, although I see links on line that suggest otherwise, so maybe it’s just that a demand isn’t perceived here. In any event, no locals show up in the markets, so whenever the fancy strikes, I have to go all the way to Spain, at least figuratively, to bring baby octopus to the table, the only bad part being the carbon compounds consumed in the process.

I understand that today “Spanish octopus” [for that matter, also that enjoyed in Portugal] may now come “from Africa”, which probably means waters off the coast of the former Spanish Sahara (today Morocco), or possibly the Canary Islands (Spain, to be sure). Unfortunately I didn’t ask the fish monger at Lobster Place about the origin of those we enjoyed on Tuesday (I’m confident they have a record), but I hope to remember to do so the next time.

So I know little more about these particular Cephalopods than the fact they were incredibly delicious. I suspect some of the credit should go to the fact that this time I had an especially high flame below the large ribbed grill pan (the charred sections in the picture are witness to that).

• four Spanish baby octopus, a total of 17 ounces (I believe they had been previously frozen) from our neighborhood seafood shop, Lobster Place, in Chelsea Market, marinated in and later outside of the refrigerator for about 2 hours altogether (although even a much shorter period also really works) in a mixture of 1/4 cup olive oil; one teaspoon of dried Italian oregano from the Madonie Mountains in Sicily; the zest and juice of half of an organic Whole Foods lemon; 1/4 teaspoon of crushed peperoncino Calabresi secchia from Buon Italia; 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt; and one finely-chopped medium clove of ‘Chesnok Red’ garlic from Alewife Farm, chopped thinly, the octopus, now at room temperature, removed from the mix, drained a bit and grilled, the mouth, or beak side first, over a very high flame on top of a seasoned double-burner cast iron grill pan for 10 or 12 minutes, served with a squeeze of juice from the zested lemon and some olive oil, and garnished with micro arugula from Norwich Meadows Farm
• eleven ounces of la Ratte potatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm, scrubbed, boiled, along with a generous amount of salt, drained, dried in the pan, halved, rolled in a little olive oil, seasoned with a local sea salt from P.E. & D.D. Seafood and freshly ground pepper, rolled in some chopped small celery stems and tossed with chopped celery leaves

• more than a handful of small, very sweet, and as it turned out, very juicy red peppers from Eckerton Hill Farm [let me add that I’d at first feared these peppers might be gone, since they’d been in an open brown paper bag  inside the crisper for a little over 2 weeks, but they were spectacular], halved lengthwise, pith and seeds removed, sautéed over a medium to high flame until slightly carbonized inside a large antique copper pot in a little olive oil in which several quite small chopped baby French leeks from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm had been heated until softened, seasoned with salt and pepper and tossed with chopped thyme from Quarton Farm  
• the wine was an excellent Portuguese (Vinho Verde/Lima) white, Vinho Verde Loureiro, Aphros 2018, from Astor Wines
• the music was Schubert’s Symphonies No. 2 and No. 5, Philippe Herreweghe conducting the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, after which we lingered with Domenico Scarlatti’s gorgeous keyboard sonatas, in wonderful performances by Joanna MacGregor

Baby octopus always makes a good-looking plate, but it also makes a delicious dinner, and last night the vegetables were a particularly colorful, and tasty, supporting cast for one of our favorite leads.

• four Spanish baby octopuses (a total of 18 ounces, previously frozen) from The Lobster Place, from our neighborhood Lobster Place, marinated in the refrigerator for about 3 hours (although even a much shorter period really doesn’t hurt) in a mixture of 1/4 cup olive oil; one teaspoon of dried Italian oregano from the Madonie Mountains in Sicily; the zest and juice of half of an organic Whole Foods lemon; 1/4 teaspoon of crushed peperoncino Calabresi secchia from Buon Italia; 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt; and one finely-chopped medium clove of an immature head of Rocambole garlic from Keith’s Farm chopped thinly, the octopus removed from the mix and brought to room temperature (or the marinating octopus removed from the refrigeratorand brought to room temperature in its liquid), drained a bit and grilled over a high flame on top of a seasoned double-burner cast iron grill pan for 10 or 12 minutes mouth or beak side down first, then placed on 2 of its sides (optionally, with a piece of aluminum foil loosely covering the grill pan throughout, because of their moderate thickness in this case), served with a squeeze of the zested lemon and some olive oil, and garnished with spring shallot blossoms, also from Keith’s Farm

• two medium Japanese eggplants from Norwich meadows Farm, each cut in half, lengthwise, and brushed with a mixture of olive oil, a little finely-chopped immature Rocambole garlic from Keith’s Farm, chopped fresh oregano from Phillips Farm, sea salt, and freshly-ground black pepper, then grilled, on a second, smaller grill pan, turning once, and arranged on the plates, sprinkled with a little chopped peppermint from Keith’s Farm, and drizzled with a little olive oil

• more than a dozen golden grape tomatoes from Alex’s Tomato Farm in the 23rd Street Saturday Market, tossed onto the grill pan just before or after the eggplant had been removed and heated, briefly, just enough to warm them through, after which they were strewn about on top and around their pan mates, accompanied on the side by a small collection of micro red amaranth from Windfall Farms, included mostly for the complexity of the color they would add to the plate [I was a bit rushed near the end of the cooking, normally I would have halved the tomatoes, or at least punctured them before throwing them on the grill, but leaving them whole this time meant that they, or their interior flesh, remained warm for a very long time once they were on the plate]
• the wine was an Italian (Sicily) white, Vurria… Grillo DOC Sicilia, from Eataly Vino
• the music, in memory of Oliver Knussen, whose death was reported earlier in the day, was the album, ‘Knussen’, which includes his Symphonies No. 2 & 3; Trumpets; Ophelia Dances for orchestra, Book 1; Coursing for Chamber Orchestra; and Cantata for oboe & string trio

I would be completely satisfied with the wonderful variety of seafood we have off our own shores (with a little help from shrimp and trout farmers) if it weren’t for the fact that the order octopada isn’t included.

When we are able to enjoy this delicacy, either we or the octopuses have to get on a plane* to make it possible.

• four 3 or 4-ounce previously-frozen baby Spanish octopuses (.83 pounds), from our neighborhood Lobster Place, marinated in the refrigerator and then on the kitchen counter for about an hour (the original recipe suggested 2 or 3 hours) in a mixture of 1/4 cup olive oil; one teaspoon of dried Italian oregano from the Madonie Mountains in Sicily; the zest and juice of half of an organic Whole Foods lemon; 1/4 teaspoon of crushed peperoncino Calabresi secchia from Buon Italia; 1/2 teaspoon of salt; and the green part of a spring garlic stem, chopped thinly, the octopus removed from the mix, drained a bit and pan-grilled over a high flame for 10 or 12 minutes mouth/beak side down first, then placed on 2 of its sides (optionally, with a piece of aluminum foil loosely covering the grill pan throughout because of their moderate thickness in this case), served with a squeeze of the same lemon and some olive oil, and garnished with chopped fresh oregano from Neversink Farm
• Pinto potatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm, boiled with a generous amount of salt until barely cooked through, drained, halved, dried while still inside the large, still-warm vintage Corning Pyrex Flameware blue-glass pot in which they had cooked, tossed with a tablespoon of olive oil, sprinkled with sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and some micro chervil from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• six halved Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods Market, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, heated gently, face down, then turned, inside a medium copper skillet, garnished with micro bronze fennel from Two Guys from Woodbridge

• the tomatoes were arranged on top of small, surprisingly bitter, spring radicchio plants from Tamarack Hollow Farm (I bought their last bag, seen in the picture, and, silly me, I had first thought they were selling the plants by the each)
• the wine was a Spanish (Canary Islands) white, Tajinaste Blanco Seco 2016, from Foragers Market Wine (note: there are octopuses in the Canary Islands)
• the music was the Paola Prestini album, ‘Labyrinth Installation Concertos’

* I’m assuming octopuses fly to get here.

There’s no way can I properly describe this meal. To begin, there’s the miracle that I am even able to obtain octopus on a coast so rich in seafood but where this cephalopod mollusk is not found, and then actually cook it to the point of our shared satisfaction; these things already exceed my talent for expressing an appreciation of the superb dinner we enjoyed last night.

I have no idea why, unless it was for its perceived oddness, but for decades, even before I had ever actually tasted it, octopus had been my culinary ‘grail’. I went on to enjoy it many times, including in meals I prepared myself; this dinner more than succeeded in confirming and continuing my devotion.

My choice of vegetables was actually barely a choice. I thought potatoes would make sense, but I didn’t have enough of one variety for a side, so I combined 2 kinds.  I had no green vegetable other than some large Brussels sprouts, which didn’t seem right. I did have some tomatoes sitting on the windowsill, which felt like a natural. Then I thought of the little bowl of cannellini beans and their juices that remained from a can I had opened for an earlier meal, but including 3 vegetables seemed like it would be a little excessive until I thought of combining tomatoes and beans; it was getting pretty late now, so I rushed to the laptop and almost immediately found this recipe, which turned out to be perfect.

• *two 6-ounce baby Italian (Sicilian?) previously-frozen octopuses from Buon Italia, marinated in the refrigerator and then on the kitchen counter for about an hour in a mixture of 1/4 cup olive oil; one teaspoon of dried Italian oregano from the Madonie Mountains in Sicily; the zest and juice of half of an organic Whole Foods lemon; 1/4 teaspoon of crushed dried Sicilian  pepperoncino from Buon Italia; 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt; and one finely-chopped large Rocambole garlic clove from Keith’s Farm, the octopus removed from the mix, drained a bit and pan-grilled on high heat for 10 or 12 minutes mouth/beak side down first, then placed on 2 of its sides, with a piece of aluminum foil loosely covering the grill pan throughout because of the thickness of these octopuses, served with a squeeze of the same lemon and some olive oil, and garnished with chopped parsley from Westside Market
• *eight potatoes, half of them Nicola from Hawthorne Valley Farm and the other half German Butterball, from Norwich Meadows Farm, scrubbed and boiled, with their skins, boiled with a generous amount of salt until barely cooked through, drained, halved, dried while still inside the large still-warm vintage Corning Pyrex Flameware blue-glass pot in which they had cooked, tossed with a tablespoon or so of olive oil, sprinkled with sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and sorrel from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• *a tablespoon of olive oil heated inside a vintage medium size heavy high-sided tin-lined copper pot, one clove of Rocambole garlic from Keith’s Farm added and stirred in the oil until beginning to brown, then adding 6 or 8 halved Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods Market and a small sprig of rosemary from Stokes Farm, cooking them, while stirring, for about one minute, adding 2 tablespoons of a Loire sparkling wine left from service as an aperitif with a guest the night before, the mix brought to a simmer before half a can of Italian cannellini beans that had not used in a meal we enjoyed a few days earlier was added, plus about a fourth of a teaspoon of sea salt and some freshly-ground black pepper, the contents of the pot cooked for about another minute, to heat the beans through, poured into 2 oval side dishes and garnished with micro mint from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• *the wine was an Italian (Sicily) white, Valle dell Acate, Grillo ‘Zagra’, 2016, from Flatiron Wines & Spirits
• *the music was Bellini’s 1831 opera semiseria, ‘La sonnambula’, in a great recording which featured Cecilia Bartoli ,owning the role of the sleepwalker, which was written for soprano sfogato, the other leading roles performed by Juan Diego Flórez and Ildebrando D’Arcangelo, Alessandro De Marchi conducting the Orchestra La Scintilla

I know that the pleasure of eating octopus, to say nothing of an interest in preparing it, isn’t something many people share with me, but I’m both really fond of the taste, and continually excited about how incredibly easy it is to prepare.

I also love the color.

Octopus can be found on almost every coast on earth, except our own, the northern western Atlantic. I would love to bring home a local catch, but for the ones we enjoyed Sunday night, I had to travel to Spain (by way of lobster Place) once again.

While these baby cephalopods came from Iberia, polipetti is in fact very Italian, and virtually everything about this meal was also Italian, in fact southern Italian (and much of it really was from Italy): the cheese, the various tomatoes, the bread, the basil, the olive oil, the oregano (fresh and dried), the lemon, the dried chilis, the eggplant, the mint, and the dinner wine itself.

I prepared the grilled heirloom eggplant and cherry tomatoes ahead of time, even prior to assembling the the first course, serving both at room temperature, in Italian tradition, after arranging them on this platter.

 

The meal actually began with an insalata Caprese.

• one red and one orange heirloom tomato from Berried Treasures Farm, sliced into bit-size pieces, arranged on 2 plates, bits of Italian Mozzarella di Bufala Campania from Buon Italia tucked in between the slices, drizzled with a Campania olive oil, Syrenum D.O.P. Peninsula Sorrentina, sprinkled with Maldon salt and coarsely-ground Tellicherry pepper, torn leaves of basil from Lucky Dog Organic Farm sprinkled on top
• the bread was ‘Sesamo’, from Sullivan Street Bakery

The second course was incredibly simple, because the vegetable had already been prepared and the octopus had only to be removed from a marinade begun in leisure 3 hours earlier, then placed on a grill pan for a few minutes before being finished with lemon, oregano, and oil.

This gorgeous eggplant, a variety totally new to me, was incredibly delicious, and really juicy (since I’m talking about eggplant, I’ll add, “jucy in the very best way”).

• four baby octopus (a total of about 12 ounces) from Lobster place, marinated in the refrigerator, covered, for 3 hours (although as little as one hour would be acceptable) in a mixture of 1/4 cup olive oil; one teaspoon of dried Italian oregano from the Madonie Mountains in Sicily; the zest and juice of half of a lemon; 1/4 teaspoon of crushed dried Sicilian peperoncino from Buon Italia; 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt; and 2 finely-chopped small garlic cloves from Willow Wisp Farm, the octopus removed from the mix and brought to room temperature, pan-grilled on high heat for 3 to 5 minutes, depending on size, on each ‘side’ (that is, in the case of this creature, mouth/beak down, then lying down on a side), served drizzled with olive oil, a squeeze of lemon, and chopped fresh oregano from Stokes Farm
• one round Italian heirloom eggplant, ‘Prosperosa’, from Franca at Berried Treasures Farm, sliced into 1/2-inch rounds, brushed with a mixture of olive oil, finely-chopped garlic from Willow Wisp Farm, chopped peppermint leaves from Stokes Farm, salt, and pepper, the slices pan-grilled, turning once, and just before they were done, joined by 16 of ‘The Best Cherry Tomatoes’ from Stokes Farm, the eggplant and the tomatoes arranged on an oval platter, garnished with mint leaves (although, admittedly, ‘garnishing’ is not an Italian gesture at all) and kept at room temperature until the octopus had been cooked
• the wine was an Italian (Campania) white, Falanghina Feudi di San Gregorio 2014
• the music was from the album, ‘Comedie et Tragedie – Lully, Marais, Rebel’ (early 18th-century music by Jean-Baptiste Lully, Jean-Féry Rebel, and Marin Marais, performances by Tempesta di Mare)